'Tuck Jagadish' Review: Nani's Film Just Stops Short of Being Fully 'Mass'

In a recent interview, ‘Natural Star’ Nani described his latest film Tuck Jagadish as a ‘full family entertainer’, promising the big mass movie experience. And there’s nothing quite like the unabashed mass movie done right. On paper, writer-director Shiva Nirvana’s Tuck Jagadish has everything going for it. The two-dimensional villain (a suitably despicable Daniel Balaji), people desperately in need of a saviour, and a twisted, corrupt system that’s in need of cleaning. And, of course, the righteous, perfect hero who kicks ass, saves the day, gets the girl and teaches society some valuable lessons along the way. Set in Bhudevipuram, a village filled with feuding families, struggling farmers, and greedy officials, it’s an ideal setting for a great masala movie.

While Tuck Jagadish is a mostly enjoyable watch that sails off the back of its earnest lead star, I just wish it lived up to its full mass movie potential. Not to say there aren't some great swagged-up sequences. There’s the cheeky, self aware hero-meets-the-girl meet cute, which doubles as an action scene. There’s a great massy interval twist, the kind you wish you could enjoy with an audience. There’s Nani schooling a family of squabbling brothers by stylishly cutting an onion. There’s even one of the most...specific hero’s-grand-entry sequences I’ve ever seen, involving a bleeding rooster in need of rescue. But outside of these rousing moments, Tuck Jagadish is a pleasant yet familiar good vs evil story. To its credit, the movie does get more compelling as it goes on, particularly in its far more effective second half, where Shiva Nirvana’s film achieves what it’s going for - balancing a Sooraj Barjatya-style family drama with massy action.

Tuck Jagadish is a Nani vehicle all the way and he’s a joy to watch as the infallible saviour to all. Endlessly earnest and equally enjoyable in the emotional scenes, where he demands you feel what he feels, and the swagged up, slow-motion ass kickery. But, of course, the female characters have little to do, other than serve as damsels in distress (a wasted Aishwarya Rajesh and Ritu Verma) or merely serve as mothers whose identity is little more than loving their sons (Maala Parvathi). As Jagadish’s niece Chandra, Aishwarya Rajesh’s track is particularly baffling. Chandra is in love with her uncle - our hero Jagadish. When he rejects her proposal, out of scorn she agrees to a marriage proposal from the bad guy’s brother, just to teach Jagadish a lesson. Her new husband is physically abusive and never misses an opportunity to prove it. When uncle Jagadish comes to save her from this new hell and take her home, she refuses to go because the “pain of his rejection is worse” than the ongoing domestic abuse (?).

Then there’s the other key trope of the heavy-handed social message that usually binds this school of movie. And yet, here I found myself swept away by what the film consistently tries to say about families fractured by financial greed and property disputes, and how quickly love and support gives way to blind savagery and money grabbing. In the end, Tuck Jagadish hardly breaks new ground as the big star vehicle. But there’s a pleasantness in it’s familiar hero-villain story and even at its most tired, it has a beating heart you can't help but be taken by.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Quints